The Epson 4900 is intended to accept 8x10 as the smallest paper size. Running some tests on the Red River greeting card 7x10 media, the 4900's rear manual feed will accept the 7" paper dimension, so long as the Paper Size Check is turned off. This particular 7x10 paper size is intended to make a 5x7 inch card, after being folded in half. In printing oddly, the print head moves back and forth across the the entire 7x10 sheet, even though there is image content only only a small region of an otherwise blank document. The print head lays ink down only in the expected areas, but only after these "ghost movements" over the entire 7x10 sheet. I am certain there is no hidden image content, as this PSD has a transparent BG. Printing is from LR4. I've never observed this printhead behavior when printing on "normal" paper sizes, and with Paper Size Check turned on. The down side is that printing time is needlessly doubled or quadrupled, depending on the amount of blank area. Any ideas about these false printhead movements? Epson tech support could not explain this printhead behavior.

Do any of you have have any experience creating a shim in the paper cassette tray, to fool the paper transport into thinking the loaded paper is larger than it actually is? In this case, you'll note in the attached image that the movable width partition's minimum dimension accommodates 8" width, rather than the 7" I'm hoping for. So I'd like to simulate a partition at the 7" width mark, rather the the 8" width mark.

For those printing greeting cards on the 4900, or 4000 series, are you struggling like I am with these small media sizes, or are you just using 8.5 x 11 media, and subsequently cutting down the prints, or even mailing out larger cards?

I use an Epson 4800 to print greeting cards only. It has the same paper limitations. I hate trimming small prints and have found it easiest to simply print on larger card stock and offer clients larger custom cards. I use the larger greeting card stock from Red River as well---linen, matte, and gloss (8.5x11) and this works out really well on the 4800. Keeping it simple is better for me.

I really have no use for such a small roll paper printer (4800) and find tray feeding much more efficient for printing cards. I think the 38** series are more suitable for greeting cards (more size options) and small prints but my 4800 simply won't die!

Are you successful in getting prints on this size card paper? I could not do so on my 4900 and the Epson Tech guys said it would not work.

Bought a cheapie Canon IP4920 and do cards with it. Maybe not a great solution, but it works.

Yes, you can print on the 7x10 media so long as you turn off Paper Size Check on the 4900 front panel. This "fools" the printer into believing the media is, for example, an 8x10 sheet, which the 4900 allows. On my machine though, the print head makes "false passes" over the entire sheet, even in those areas that are blank.

I use the larger greeting card stock from Red River as well---linen, matte, and gloss (8.5x11) and this works out really well on the 4800. Keeping it simple is better for me.

I really have no use for such a small roll paper printer (4800) and find tray feeding much more efficient for printing cards.

Ken, I've been considering going the 8.5x11 route myself, but the RR paper selections aren't as wide as with the 7x10. Do you put the pre-scored 8.5x11 sheets in the 4800 paper cassette? Have you had paper jams caused by the scoring of the cards? I still want to try building a shim in the 4900 cassette tray, to fill the gap left by a 7" wide sheet (as the cassette expects am 8" width), but I was worried about jaming the paper path with a scored sheet.

I've had zero paper jams using RR's pre-scored larger greeting card stock (linen, matte, gloss). I find it is simply easier to fold and get these card orders filled with the least amount of fuss. Downside is that I only offer one card size but no one seems to mind as it gives off that warm and fuzzy, nicer than Hallmark feeling...

I buy the matching envelopes from RR, but plastic sleeves from Uline. This makes a really nice "Greeting Card Kit." Still would like a smaller 3880 though....

Thank you, Ken. I'll let you all know if I have any luck feeding the 7x10 stock via cassette. Good to know we have the 8.5x11 option though. I only wish RR offered their Polar Satin material in the 8.5x11 card size.

I am certain there is no hidden image content, as this PSD has a transparent BG. Printing is from LR4.

So what is your document size? I've never seen this either but I always position the image by setting borders, not by making a larger document with "transparent" or blank areas which by your description sounds like what you may be doing.

Offering only the larger sized cards is interesting but many of my customers have card racks sized for smaller cards. Add in offering their customers a variety of sizes to choose from and the popularity of cards that mail with one first class stamp and I have the need to print smaller cards.

The small Canon 5 ink printer and something like teh 6 ink Epson Artisan 50 are both good choices for the Red River pre-scored cards. They print faster than the 4900 as well and don't take long time outs to check inks, do wierd checks and whatnot.

If looking at small printers for cards get one like these with a back loading feature. The flat from the front will give you problems with heavier card stock after a bit.

The big printers are fine but the dedicated small printer for these cards works well.

It kills me to make my greeting cards using ultra chrome inks, but I bet it is still cheaper than using a smaller printer. Yesterday I started making our cards. I fit 18 cards on one piece of 17x22 paper. They can be cut out quite quickly.

...I fit 18 cards on one piece of 17x22 paper. They can be cut out quite quickly.

If I may, how do you:

1) Score the paper to assure a good card-fold? Do you use a scoring blade on a small trimmer and just score one card at a time, or a larger scoring device to treat the 17x22 sheet?2) Print on the card "inside" surface? This amounts to the back of the print face. Perhaps you use a dual-sided material.

So what is your document size? I've never seen this either but I always position the image by setting borders, not by making a larger document with "transparent" or blank areas which by your description sounds like what you may be doing.

Wayne, You are correct. I made a document to "fill" the printable area on the 7x10 card, but the image content was restricted to the "lower third" of that document. Everything else was transparent. Nonetheless, I could understand the printhead wandering around, but not laying down ink, over the transparent regions. Is this normal, to your knowledge?

Printing out a few cards using inkjet is fine, but the paper and ink costs are high and the speed of printing is slow. If you want to get serious, consider going color laser instead. I have a local printer cut & prescore my 7x10 90lb paper for about 10 cents a sheet. I use a Konica Minolta 4650 that. Prints at about 15 to 20 sheets a minute (using card stock setting). There are of course newer models now--the key for good quality in Konica printers is 9600 DPI capability. These printers can be had for between $4 and $500 bucks with toner carts. Using the 8000 sht capacity carts, I figure my toner and drum costs at about 15 cents a card. The quality is NOT inkjet, but comparable to offset. Mileage varies with the subject matter. Smooth tonal ramps are toughest.

Re ghost printing... I had some problems with my 3800 with this including a very very very light cyan ink all over the blank area. It turned out to be the profile. Once i got rid of the profiles no problem. Every so often when a new osx comes out I test again problem is still there. I now do my own profiles datacolor spyderprnt.

Re ghost printing... I had some problems with my 3800 with this including a very very very light cyan ink all over the blank area. It turned out to be the profile...

Version 4 ICC profiles are sometimes said to be the culprit of false printing, meaning the deposition of ink in what are truly blank areas of the canvas. I think your light cyan experience might come under than heading. Using a version 2 ICC profile will, apparently,usually solve this problem.

The ghost head movements I'm talking about don't deposit any ink that I can see. But over the years I've of number of poster composite images; I don't recall ghost printing movements of the print head when there blank areas were being "printed".

You are right some 2.4 profiles from one suppliers app caused the problem I only use 2.0 as do a few others.

Why not try another profile except from the supplier who provided the paper. any profile will do 2.0 . who cares about the colour... I am of course assuming you are not generating your own profiles. My problem went accross the entire paper from defined margins in all blank areas. If I defined paper margins to be the same as the image no problem

It kills me to make my greeting cards using ultra chrome inks, but I bet it is still cheaper than using a smaller printer. Yesterday I started making our cards. I fit 18 cards on one piece of 17x22 paper. They can be cut out quite quickly.

I use the 7x10 paper from Moab (Lasal) and instead of printing it vertically, ie. 7" wide by 10" long, I feed the card stock in horizontally - 10" wide. I just rotate the image in LR before I print. That way I dont' have to change any settings on the printer (Detect page size). It is a pain to hand-feed the printer, but the ink costs are so much lower than a typical desktop printer - and the quality is so much better. I don't do a lot of cards, so the extra hand-feed time isn't too bad. I just print them while I'm doing something boring like bookkeeping.